Counting apparatus



1951 w. ABEL COUNTING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 18 1950 ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 7, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Walter Abel, Salford, England, assignor of onehalf to Measure Meters Limited, Salford, England, a body corporate of Great Britain, and one-half to Dobson & Barlow Limited, Bolton, England, a body corporate of Great Britain Application September 18, 1950, Serial No. 185,366 In Great Britain September 21, 1949 I 4 Claims.

This invention concerns counting devices having a series of intergeared wheels or discs mounted on a common shaft, each wheel or disc bearing numerals to 9 on its periphery, and relates particularly to improvements in such devices in which counting wheels or discs after being actuated can be returned to zero by. the depression of a setting lever.

One object of the present invention is a counting device of the aforesaid kind in which the numbered counting wheels can be set to any predetermined number within the range of the device and which will be actuated from that number back to zero, and when all of the counting wheels are in their zero positions, a switch or other controlling device will be actuated for stopping a machine or for other purpose.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel construction of the counting wheels whereby each counting wheel can be set to a desired number, and after all the counting wheels have returned to their zero positions the operation of the setting lever will return all the counting wheels to their predetermined numbers, thereby re-setting the device for the next counting operation. The device will therefore continue to operate the switch or other controlling device after the same number of actuations for any number of times, until the setting of the counting wheels is altered to another desired actuating shaft to the first counting wheel,

Figs. 6 to 14 are detail views of the parts shown in Fig. 5,

Fig. 15 is a detail view of the last counting wheel,

Fig. 16 is perspective view of the lever operating the switch or other controlling device.

The counting device shown in the drawings has four counting wheels A A A and A each having the numerals 0 to 9 on its periphery, A being the units wheel, A the tens wheel, A the hundreds Wheel, and A the thousands 2 wheel. The device can thus be used for counting up to 9999. It is to be understood however that the device is not limited to four counting wheels and that it can be provided with any desired number of counting wheels.

The counting wheels A to A are loosely mounted on the shaft A and the units wheel A receives its motion from the shaft B which is rotatably mounted in bearings b carried by the base B of the device. Shaft B projects through one end of a casing C suitably secured to the base B The shaft B is driven from the device or other apparatus which it is desired that the device should control. Thus, in the case of a device for measuring predetermined lengths of fabrics, the shaft B would be driven from the measuring rollers between which the fabric is passed.

The shaft B drives the counting wheel A through a pinion b on the shaft B which drives the pinion a loosely mounted on the shaft A, the boss a of the pinion a being eccentric (see Fig. 8). A pin toothed wheel a (see Fig. 9) is mounted on the eccentric boss a of the pinion a so that as the latter rotates, the wheel a is reciprocated to bring the teeth thereof into engagement with the horizontal slots a in the boss of a toothed wheel a loosely mounted on the shaft A (see Fig. 10). Thus for each revolution of the pinion a the wheel a is rotated an angular distance equal to the distance between two slots a The movement of the wheel a is guided by a slotted plate a secured to the Wheel, the slot in which is a loose fit over the shaft B. The wheel a drives the wheel cl. through the carrier pinion d loose on a shaft D, and the wheel a (Fig. 11) has a pinhole a in which engages a pin a projecting from the heart shaped cam (1 carried by the wheel a which is the units counting wheel.

Instead of the numerals of the units counting wheel A being inscribed directly on the periphery of the wheel a they are inscribed on a disc a (Figs. 5 and 13) mounted on the hub of the wheel a and having a ring of internal ratchet teeth a which are engaged by the spring and ball catch a Fig. 12. This allows of the disc a being rotated in one direction in relation to the wheel a and the cam 11 carried thereby, and driven in the opposite direction by wheel a The whole of the mechanism shown exploded in Fig. 5 and described above is held in position on the shaft A by the sping clip c (Fig. 14.) its position being located by distance pieces e (Fig. I).

The disc a forming the unit counting wheel A drives the tens counting Wheel A in the usual way by the engagement of the slot 11 with the pinion d loose on the shaft D which in turn engages the teeth of the wheel A Instead however of the numberals of the wheel A being inscribed directly on the periphery of the wheel A they are inscribed on a discat the side of the wheel and connected thereto by internal ratchet teeth and spring and ball catch exactly as described with reference to the units wheel A The hundreds wheel A is driven from the tens wheel A in the same way through the pinion d as the wheel A is driven from the units wheel A and the thousands wheel A is driven from hundreds wheels A through the pinion d in the same way, each of the toothed pinionsof the wheels A A and A carrying a heart shaped cam aand the inscribed portion of each wheel being capable of being rotated in one direction in relation to its toothed portion and the cam a carried thereby.

The periphery of the inscribed disc portion of the last counting wheel A is formed with a recess d as shown in Fig. 15, this recess being so positioned that it is opposite the end of the arm I of the pivoted stirrup shaped lever F (see Fig. 16) when the zero of the wheel A has moved rearwardly a very small angular distance from the'normal zero position.

The stirrup shaped lever F is pivoted on a rod F near the base B and is out of balance, so that when the end 1 can enter the slot ain the wheel A the longitudinal member ,f will fall a short distance. The member ,7 carries a projection I which controls a micro-switch indicated at G so that when the member I of the lever F falls it-operates the switch which in turn, through a suitable relay, operates to stop a machine or carry out some other function. As shown in Fig. 16 the projection f is eccentrically mounted on the member f so that it can be finely adjusted in relation to the contact member of the switch G which it controls.

The end f of the second arm of the lever contacts an arm G (Fig. 6) havinga catch g which normally engages a recess 72 in the periphcry of a disc h secured on a shaft H to which the resetting handle H is affixed, thereby only allowing a limited movement of the shaft H unless the member I of the lever F has fallen owing to the end 1 having entered the slot at in the wheel A The shaft H carries a finger h at each end which fingers bear against the shaft D the ends of which are mounted in arcuate slots in the ends 13 of the frame, and these fingers h press on the shaft to keep the pinicns d cl and d in contact with the teeth of the counting wheels A A and A respectively, against the action of the light spring h tending to move the shaft D in the arcuate slots to disengage said pinions from the respective counting wheels.

The shaft H has also a number of arms k affixed to it, there being an arm is for each counting wheel A to A The arms is normally lie below the respective heart shaped cams a and if the shaft H is rotated by the lever H a second portion k at the end of each arm engages the corresponding cam a and returns it with the counting wheel and the numbered disc to the zero position, i. e. the position shown in Fig. 3.

The counting mechanism is enclosed by a casing C secured to the base B and having an aperture m at the top immediately over the counting wheels A to. A the micro-switch G being carried on the outside of the casing-C, and the micro-switch G is enclosed by a cover N having a hinged member n which covers the aperture m in the casing C. The hinged member n has a window n through which the counting wheels A to A can be viewed when the member 71 is turned down on to the top of the casing C.

To set the counting wheels so that the lever F will fall to control the micro-switch G after a predetermined number of operations or a predetermined length has been measured, all the counting wheels A to A are moved to their zero positions, which in the device described and shown, is at the top immediately below the aperture m in the casing, and. when in this position, each of the heart cams a is in the vertical position shown in Fig. 3. The hinged member 12 is then raised and the predetermined figure at which it is desired the mechanism should operate is brought below the aperture m by manually rotating the relevant numbered discs a relatively to the wheels 0. to which the heart shaped cams a are fixed, whereby the Zero position of the heart shaped cams is not altered. In the drawings, the desired number is shown as 25, so that the discs a of the units wheel A and the tens wheel A have been moved to bring the 5 of the former and the 2 of the latter into line with the 0 of the wheels A and A without moving the cams a of any of the wheels from their zero positions. When the counting wheels have been set the recess a in the disc of the last counting wheel is just clear of the end f of the pivoted stirrup shaped lever F, so that the latter is held with its member f in the raised position with the end f of its second arm in engagement with the arm G to retain the catch 9' in the recess h of the sleeve 71 secured to the shaft H, thereby preventing rotation of the latter by the re-setting lever H except for the small angular distance equal to the length of the recess h. This small angular distance is sufiicient to allow movement of the shaft D in its arcuate bearing slots under the influence of the springs 71. to disengage the pinions d :2 and d from the counting wheels A respectively and to A to allow of the initial setting of the latter to their zero positions but insufiicient for the arms k to engage the heart shaped cams a".

The rotation of the shaft B is in a direction to drive the counting wheels backwards so that after two and five-tenths of a revolution of the wheel A this wheel and also the wheel A have been returned to their zero positions whereby all the numerals of all the counting wheels show zero. When the wheels A and A show zero however, their heart shaped cams a are not in their zero positions, they having been moved therefrom five-tenths and two-tenths of a revolution respectively as will be understood from the previous description. A very small further backward movement of the counting wheel A from its zero position is immediately transmitted through the wheels A and A to the wheel A opposite the end 1 of the pivoted stirrup shaped lever F, allowing the member f thereof and thereby'fall to cause the micro-switch to operate to carry out its purpose of stopping a machine or other function. The falling of the member f of the lever F also causes the disengagementof the catch 9 on the arm G from the'recess h in the disc h secured to the shaft H and thereby allow the rotation of the latter to its full extent by the re-setting lever H When it is desired to reset the counting mechanism to again count 25 operations or units of length, the resetting lever H is operated to rotate the shaft H, which causes the finger k to move the heart shaped cams a of the counting wheels A and A back to their zero positions corresponding to the numerals 5 and 2 on these counting Wheels, so that the counting mechanism is leset to 25. The rotation of the cams a and the wheels to which they are affixed is allowed owing to the pressure of the fingers 71 having been removed from the shaft D owing to the disengagement of the end i of the lever F from the arm G and the consequent disengagement of the catch g from the recess h in the disc h so that the shaft D is retracted by the springs in to bring the pinions d out of engagement with the teeth of the counting wheels.

The counting wheel A will also be moved by the action of its finger h? on its cam a the slight angular distance necessary to move the recess a therein away from the end 1 of the lever F, so that the latter is moved about its pivot rod F to raise the member thereby closing (or opening) the micro-switch G and also looking the shaft H which cannot again be rotated except for the slight angular movement, previously referred to, until the counting wheels A and A have again returned to their zero positions.

I claim:

1. In a counting device of the type referred to, the combination with counting wheels of different values and a switch for controlling a useful function, of an unbalanced two-armed pivoted lever of stirrup shape, a bar on which the said lever is pivoted, the end of one arm being adapted. to enter a recess in the counting wheel of highest value when all the counting wheels have returned to zero, a projection carried on two members of the lever connecting the two arms, which projection operates the switch when the said end enters the recess in the counting wheel, resetting mechanism for resetting the counting wheels, and a spring loaded pivoted catch which normally prevents the operation of the re-setting mechanism, the movement of the lever when it engages in the said recess causing the second arm 6 to actuate the said catch to release the resetting mechanism.

2. A counting device as in claim 1, having a shaft parallel to the axes of the counting wheels, a plurality of levers, one for each counting wheel, secured on said shaft, the rotation of said shaft causing each lever to engage the corresponding Wheel and return it to zero, and a disc secured on said shaft and provided with a recess on its periphery with which the catch locking the re-setting mechanism normally engages.

3; A counting device as in claim 2, having a spring loaded shaft parallel to the axes of the counting wheels, the ends of said shaft being mounted in arcuate slots, pinions transmitting the drive from one counting wheel to the next being mounted on said shaft, and fingers projecting from the shaft carrying the levers which re-set the counting wheels, and engaging the spring loaded shaft to hold the latter in a position with the said pinions in mesh with the counting wheels when the re-setting mechanism is not operated.

4. A counting device as in claim 3, having the recess in the disc engaged by the pivoted lever of sufiicient angular length to allow of a small rotary movement of the shaft when the catch is engaged in the recess, such angular movement being sulficient to allow the fingers contacting the spring loaded shaft carrying the pinions to move a sufficient distance away from the spring loaded shaft so that the latter will move in its arcuate bearing slots to cause the disengagement of the pinions from the counting wheels for the purpose of setting the counting wheels to any desired number.

WALTER ABEL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 545,034 Balzer Aug. 20, 1895 1,929,407 Blum Oct. 10, 1933 2,046,304 Brubaker et al June 30, 1936 2,219,636 Schwartz Oct. 29, 1940 

